Tag Archives: megalomaniac

.A Czech artist has re-modeled a traditional London double-decker bus into a mechanical sculpture of an athlete doing push-ups to celebrate the Olympic Games opening in the British capital on Friday.

David Cerny, whose past works have enraged European politicians and sought to poke fun at rival artists, has installed the bus outside the Czech Olympic House in London’s Islington neighborhood. Cerny bought the 1957 bus from an owner in the Netherlands, attached two huge arms, an electrical engine and a lot of wiring and suspension tools to make it into a piece of art named “London Boosted”.

The mechanisms inside make the 6-tonne bus move up and down on bright red arms, raising the chassis into various angles, accompanied by recordings of a groaning voice and video projections in the windows.

“There is one common exercise for every sportsman in the world, and that is push-ups,”

Cerny said:

“It is training for sport activities but at the same time it is also punishment in armies and prisons. So the push-ups are a very universal physical activity…It is in a way very ironic.”

In 2009, Cerny revealed a huge puzzle-like object, called “Entropa”, in an EU building in Brussels that pictured European countries in unflattering ways, making a dramatic start to the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. Bulgaria protested for being shown as a squat toilet, Germany was a Swastika-like web of highways, including moving cars, France was covered by an “On Strike” banner and Britain was missing altogether.

In the Czech Republic, he once painted pink a Soviet tank, which was serving as a monument of the 1945 liberation of Prague. His “Shark”, was a statue of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein floating in formaldehyde. It was meant to poke fun at British artist Damien Hirst’s embalmed shark, and was banned from exhibitions in Belgium and Poland.

Cerny once also put up large replicas of guns and posters in London back in the 1990s, calling on people to observe a “Day of Killing” to control population growth, as part of an art fair. In that context, the London bus seems uncontroversial.

“We will see how long the athlete can work out for”, Cerny said. “Let’s hope he will exercise for the full three weeks. He will be the biggest sportsman there.”

Li Si (208 BC), Prime Minister during the Qin dynasty, was executed by the Five Pains method which he had devised.

James Heselden (1948–2010), having recently purchased the Segway production company, died in a single-vehicle Segway accident. (He drove off a cliff)

Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889–1944) was an American engineer and chemist who contracted polio at age 51, leaving him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his death when he was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.

Wan Hu, a sixteenth-century Chinese official, is said to have attempted to launch himself into outer space in a chair to which 47 rockets were attached. The rockets exploded and, it is said, neither he nor the chair was ever seen again.

.this man is doin’ amazing work. his pieces of art, objects, sculptures are one and only. haven’t reach anything similar to this, his art is stunning. In this post we gonna see sculptures made by Will Ryman. Enjoy ~

.amazing idea, I like this sculptures, installations or whatever how they are named. he have done a lot of similar projects like this in d last century and this is opportunity for me to share d space for this great art. u can check d page for more projects, cars & stuff 🙂

:I have d opportunity to see this installation/ exhibition for first time even is made three years ago. what do I like here? – I like d megalomaniac impact, I like huge stuff.. and here I respect d topic that d author use.

:I saw few sculptures, installations during d past few months of d last year and I’m pretty interested in his work. We’ll see works from Henrique Oliveira born ‘73, Sao Paolo..

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:I will not even try to explain what he want to express with this works, how hi use d material, where he find it, all of that u’ll hear in this short presentation from him where he discusses his work with Rice Gallery student attendants.
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:from d gallery we read:

Oliveira uses tapumes, which in Portuguese can mean “fencing,” “boarding,” or “enclosure,” as a title for many of his large-scale installations. The term makes reference to the temporary wooden construction fences seen throughout the city of São Paulo where Oliveira lives. It also refers to the weathered wood Oliveira uses as the primary material in his installations.

:I like megalomaniac stuff, bit deconstructive in their forms. ..it took all of my attention, presence, thoughts . ..engaged art with deep roots. this tridimensional architecture, sculptures are perfect landscapes for an abstract mind, d state that u get in is unreal dimension, surreal perception from one side but so real and close to d natural landscapes from other.

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via artdaily.org

Early on, Oliveira experimented with the surfaces of his paintings by gluing newspaper onto a canvas and scraping it, or mixing sand with the paint. A breakthrough occurred while he was a student at the University of São Paulo, where for two years the view from his studio window was a wooden construction fence. Over time Oliveira began to see the deterioration of the wood and its separation into multiple layers and colors as similar to the process of painting. One week before the final student show opened, the construction was finished and the worn out plywood fence was discarded. Oliveira collected the wood and used it in his first installation.

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Oliveira’s installations, which he refers to as “tridimensionals,” have evolved into massive, spatial constructions that combine painting, architecture, and sculpture. In some installations he uses walls as supports, attaching and shaping lengths of PVC tubing to create enormous, protruding forms over which he layers thin sheets of wood. In others, he arranges thousands of pieces of painted wood into gestural abstract “paintings” that spill off the wall into the viewer’s space. The constants in Oliveira’s work are the visual and tactile qualities of wood that has been exposed to the elements, and though he incorporates new, flexible plywood into his work, his primary material remains the discarded wood collected on the streets of São Paulo.

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“powerful recycled wood installations snake through their exhibition spaces like massive living trees that burst out of walls and ceilings.”

:hope u enjoy this surreal wooden dream, there are few more photos with d works from this great artist, sorry that I didn’t put names, but his signature is far away then authentic. happy that on this day I first time decide to collect most of his masterpieces, adorable indeed. – what do u say? . .. u can leave ur comments below or on :d white b[l]og ::: #facebook page _enJoy d first working day of this year, if that means explore – go for IT!